


Palliative

by allin_ev_itable



Category: Bandstand - Oberacker/Oberacker & Taylor
Genre: Character Analysis, Gen, I read behavioral and biomedical reports for this, The others will have dialogue I promise, This one is just a start to this series tbh, love me pls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 07:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15881703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allin_ev_itable/pseuds/allin_ev_itable
Summary: Palliative Coping: Making the situation more tolerable or keeping it under control without directly taking care of the problem.





	Palliative

**Author's Note:**

> Heck new work let's go

 Donny Novitski drinks to blur out the guilt. The burn of the alcohol distracts him from the horrific flashes of black and the all too vivid memory of a grenade going off. He sits at his piano, glass now empty for the third time that evening as he slowly presses down on the keys in a melancholic melody that just makes him numb. Perhaps the liquor could fight the insomnia, as it temporarily fought the guilt and anger and thoughts that it should be Michael there, and not him. The gin makes him feel nothing, a short solution to his now lifelong problem.

 Jimmy Campbell drinks to let himself feel. The wine he sips on as records play softly in his living room takes him back to supply closets and hushed voices, promises of a life beyond the war. Promises the were broken. It takes him back to bright eyes, a confident smile, late nights of reading messy words in a tattered book. The sound of a ship cutting through the water, an alarm blaring, noises in the air as men rush past him. Explosions. Fire. Cold. Screaming. Aaron. More screaming, shock overtaking his body. The alcohol lets him cry, a crutch he can use to explain his emotions if anyone saw him displaying them.

 Davy Zlatic drinks to forget. Glass after glass, flask after flask, bottle after bottle, he hopes that the next one will finally clear his mind of the horrid images he can’t escape. Thin frames, terrified eyes, screams and crying that were more clear in his mind that gunshots. He hides all the bad sides of his personality, of his past, with the alcohol and overactive humor. He thinks the good can drown out the bad with the help of a large glass of whiskey, or two, or six. Maybe if he makes others laugh and smile with his joking around, he can feel happy by default. What he drinks always reflects how he feels. Beer means he’s feeling better than usual, but not enough to attempt a sober day. Vodka means he’s blank, so uncontrollably numb that he’s hoping the alcohol can help him liven up a little. Whiskey means he needs to get drunk, and  _ fast _ , because if not he’d be closing in on Wayne’s mindset, and the mindset of the guys who came back fine but then just  _ weren’t _ . He never stops hoping maybe one day his “just one more” will finally rid himself of the memories. Deep down, he knows it won’t, but that doesn’t stop him from trying.

 Nick Radel drinks to calm down. His typically explosive behavior is dulled by the liquor that bites back as much as he does when he’s sober. He has a drink with Davy after the gig, then later one with Wayne at home, and the urge to provide a snappy attitude or a snarky comment is blurred to a level that actually makes him smile. He jokes with Davy, talks about positive things with Wayne. He hates how much trust he needs to put in whoever he’s with when he’s intoxicated, but he goes along with it. It’s nice to let the walls he built fall for a short period of time. He can’t fully trust the band yet, that much is obvious. He’s been through too much to trust people in a matter of months. But he trusts them as much as he possibly can, and certainly enough to allow himself one more glass of bourbon.

 Wayne Wright drinks to unwind. The brandy he either chugs or sips depending on the day allows him to relax, to sit down and not think about the different ways he could rearrange the furniture in the living room to make it safer in case of an emergency, or the dust gathering on the bookshelf after it’s been over a day since he completely dusted. He lets himself talk with Nick, laugh about stupid things and talk about how he misses his children and wishes he could see them more. He thinks about how he’s a disappointment to his kids, a failure of a father since he can’t even interact with them without pointing out wrinkled shirts or the time, always the time. He ignores the dark thought that follows, a deep voice that tells him he can make it all stop now. He takes a drink, refills a glass, and listens to the voice become warbled and unintelligible. 

 Johnny Simpson drinks to dull his pain. Taking his pill helps, but the beer he takes it with also helps to rid his back of the sore, aching feeling he’s familiar with but certainly not okay with. He tries to limit how much he drinks, cutting himself off after a two bottle maximum, if he hasn’t fallen asleep on the floor yet. The thought of depending on alcohol to pay better attention to helping his pain makes him feel so scared. He wants to tackle his problems independently, but by the time he tries to do so and find a consistent solution to his back, he’s completely forgotten about his options and soon he’s washing down a pill with a freshly opened bottle. He’ll fight this soon. He knows he will. He won’t forget again.

 Julia Trojan drinks to celebrate. She rarely drinks, a preference due to the fact that she can’t stand the burn of the alcohol when it hits the back of her throat. She bares it for special occasions, like holidays or milestones from friends and family. She drinks when they win the state competition, less of a celebration and more a determined drink as they create a plan of action. She drinks on the train to New York City, a definite celebration because they were riding  _ first class _ to win a contest they worked so hard on. She drinks after they throw the broadcast, one last triumphant “screw you” to the nation who commercialized veterans and also thought it was unladylike to drink in public. She gets wasted that night, turning their tearful national declaration of a look into their lives into a last hurrah before they were all to leave the next day.

 The Donny Nova Band all drink together to feel real. They laugh and joke and bicker and happily dance around hotel rooms all across America on their tour. They sometimes talk about things that typically go unmentioned, and sometimes cry. They comfort each other and have no shame in doing so. Separately, they all drink for their own reasons, their own ways to cope with how the war left them, but together, they drink to remind themselves they can drink for other reasons. To just be together, to be happy, to laugh. To love. Alcohol didn’t have to be a way to cope for once, but a way to spend time with people they cared for and trusted to the best of their abilities, and that was more than enough for them.

**Author's Note:**

> STALK ME CORNER
> 
> Instagram: @allin_ev_itable
> 
> Tumblr: @allin-ev-itable
> 
> Twitter: @allin_ev_itable


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